LOS ANGELES – The Detroit Tigers may have the reigning triple crown and Cy Young winner, but their best pitcher to start the season has been “Black” Jack Flaherty.
The 29-year-old has started two games for the Motor City ball club, going 1-0, giving up a total of three earned runs off 11 ⅓ innings pitched with 12 strikeouts. He won his second start on April 4th, the Tigers home opener versus the Chicago White Sox.
Jack Flaherty Is Lights Out In Return To Detroit
After being a crucial part to last year’s World Series run for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Flaherty signed a two-year deal worth $35 million with the Tigers, making it his second stint with the organization.
“It’s good to see some old faces again,” Flaherty said in an interview with MLB Network. “It was kind of a blur how the whole year ended, it was just incredible, but it’s good to be back with these guys.”
Flaherty started the 2024 season with Detroit, but with the team having a poor first half and Flaherty having a great first half on an expiring deal, he was shipped to Los Angeles at last year’s trade deadline. In the 18 starts with the team during his time there, he had a 2.95 ERA, his lowest ERA in that amount of starts to start a season in his career. He had a 3.17 ERA for the entirety of the 2024 regular season and started five games for the Boys in Blue in the postseason.
His return to the team makes a lot of sense for both sides. Detroit now has one of the best one-two starters in baseball, and Flaherty returns to the club that revamped him to the old Flaherty that we were used to seeing in the earlier parts of his career.
Before his first stint with Detroit, he had an injury plagued 2022 season due to a recurring shoulder injury, limiting him to just nine starts. 2023 wasn’t too kind to him either, as he had a 4.43 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals before being dealt to the Baltimore Orioles. There, he had a 6.75 ERA.
“We’re thrilled to bring Jack back. We’re really proud of the year that he put together last year. He is a very popular guy in our clubhouse. And I will say, from my standpoint, it is a huge step forward for this organization to have a player of Jack’s caliber be outspoken about wanting to come back to Detroit,” said Tigers Team President Scott Harris.
Now that Flaherty is back in Detroit, and with the team making the playoffs last season for the first time since 2014, the expectations are much greater than what they have been in years past. If Flaherty and the Tigers can live up to their expectations and make their way back to October once again, what an exciting time it will be to be a Detroit sports fan.
